AMSTERDAM

my wonderful boyfriend booked us a long weekend away in Amsterdam. A city we had never been to before but eager to explore!

After arriving at the airport and between us figuring out the train system into the city centre our trip to Amsterdam started with checking into the incredible Hotel INK Amsterdam. A beautiful boutique hotel which was formally the base of the Dutch newspaper “Tijd”. It was a place where stories were born, written and ultimately printed. The history makes the hotel so unique and is reflected through the interior from type writers on the check in desk to note pads in the rooms. I absolutely love that there is meaning behind the interior and I think this really made the hotel feel so special and our stay here feel so much more personal.

For the rest of the day we spent the afternoon exploring Amsterdam (with the help of google maps) and getting our bearings. Our first tourist stop was the sex museum which I have no words for except you need to experience it yourself! (Maybe not with your nan but if you’re with a group of friends it is definitely worth the 5 euro entry for a picture with the giant penis). After a long day we retreated back to our hotel room to order room service and chill!

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Saturday was our first full day in the city. We started off by heading towards Da Jordaan to see what this part of the city had to offer. We spent the morning wondering round little rustic homeware shops before heading back into the centre where we continued to shop.

We stumbled across a beautiful cocktail bar on the side of a canal where we stopped for a drink! In the rush of the city (dodging the many cyclists) it was nice to just sit and enjoy the beauty of what the city had to offer and watch the canal boats go by!

As part of my birthday present Jake had booked us a table at ‘Mr Porter’, a steakhouse situated on the rooftop of the W hotel - honestly the dreamiest restaurant ever! The menu was based on the idea of sharing, so we opted for the Mrs Porter steak with fries and veg as ‘accessories’ (sides to me and you). The steak was really something else!! I don’t think anything will beat it, despite it being on the pricey side, it is

100% worth it the whole experience was really amazing from start to finish! Once we’d finished our food we made our way onto the rooftop bar for a few too many cocktails! I couldn’t not write this without a mention of the toilets, I had read so many reviews of the restaurant before coming and not a single person mentioned how cool the toilets were?! Must be a millennial thing because when they’re that cool it would be rude not to take an instagram picture!!

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On Sunday we started our day with a a canal cruise with ‘Flagship Amsterdam’ who run Luxury Small open-boat canal tours! They were the loveliest people, I 100% recommend

them (plus they make cocktails on board so win win situation really!). A canal tour wasn’t something we had originally planned to do but I am so glad we made time for one, it was so fascinating learning the history behind the city and seeing lots of places we wouldn’t have seen otherwise! really was the highlight of my trip!!

After this we headed straight for the Amsterdam Ice Bar, the ticket included a welcome drink which was a cocktail in the entrance bar and then 2 drinks inside the actual ice bar, which you could chose between shots, beer or orange juice - obviously we went for shots at 3 o clock in the afternoon! Clues in the name but it really was bloody chilly - we lasted about 10 minutes in there before we went back outside to the warmth and sat by a canal watching the world go by!

That evening we took a walk down to the red light district which wasn’t as I expected it to be! I was expecting all the windows to be full of half naked women dancing but it was just filled with middle aged tourists queueing to go into live sex shows! However, one thing I really did like about Amsterdam was the atmosphere at night with the buzz of people going in and out of shops down little lanes! We slowly made our way back to the hotel through the crowds and settled into bed with takeaway cheesecake to end our final night!

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On Monday after sadly checking out of quite possibly my favourite hotel we’ve stayed in to date we headed to a little cafe called De Jarden on the side of the canal for a spot of lunch and to take in the last of what Amsterdam had to offer! We spent the rest of the afternoon

shopping for little gifts to bring home for our family and made the discovery if Tony’s Chocolonely - which gives all the Willy Wonka chocolate vibes! The Caramel and Sea salt really is to die for!!! After tasting this I’m afraid Cadbury’s will never compare, after a google to see where I can get this in the UK I am over the moon to see that they have plans to launch here in 2019! Once we’d finished our last minute shopping and headed to the airport I was so sad that our time in Amsterdam had to come to an end, it really is such a unique and beautiful city in every way and I will defiantly be returning one day!